Gen. Allen resumes command duty in Afghanistan

FILE- In this March 26, 2012, file photo, Marine Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan listens during a news conference at the Pentagon. When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pointedly warned young troops last spring to mind their ways, he may have been lecturing the wrong audience. The culture of military misconduct starts at the top. At least five current and former U.S. general officers have been reprimanded or investigated for possible misconduct in the past two weeks _ a startling run of embarrassment for a military whose stock among Americans rose so high during a decade of war that its leaders seemed almost untouchable. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gen. John Allen has returned to Kabul to resume his duties as the top U.S. and NATO commander of the war in Afghanistan, more than a week after the Pentagon announced it is investigating potentially “inappropriate” correspondence between the four-star general and a woman linked to the David Petraeus sex scandal.

Lt. Col. Les Carroll, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, said Allen returned to work Wednesday.

Allen had been in Washington when news of his problematic email correspondence with Florida socialite Jill Kelley surfaced last Monday. He was expected to testify before a Senate committee last Thursday on his nomination to become the commander of U.S. European Command and the top NATO general. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has put that nomination on hold.

At the time Panetta announced that the Pentagon inspector general is reviewing as many as 30,000 pages of Allen’s correspondence with Kelley, Panetta said he had determined that Allen should remain in command in Kabul, pending the outcome of the probe.

Advertisement

Allen’s predecessor as Afghanistan war commander, David Petraeus, resigned from his post as CIA director earlier this month after acknowledging an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. The FBI learned of the affair as it investigated anonymous, harassing emails, ultimately traced to Broadwell, that were sent to Kelley. The FBI investigation also turned up the emails between Allen and Kelley.